president carter lost to ronald reagan, president reagan lost his first debate to robert mondale. president bush lost his first debate to bill clinton and ross perot. next president bush lost his first debate to john kerry. so when president obama lost his first debate last week to his challenger, mitt romney, that outcome was totally in keeping with the sad, sad incumbent president tradition of getting creamed in their first debate. but what hat means for tonight is that the democrats are looking for a solid performance to try to stop the republican momentum, to try to quash the poll imbalance that romney and ryan have been enjoying since the debate last week even if stephanie cutter tried to tell us a minute ago there was so much bounce. to that end, chuck todd joins us from the debate site with new polling information out today. chuck, what do we know today, chuck? >> i think we know, look, there has been some movement in romney's direction. now, some of it is, i would say, if you look at everything we've learned over the last few days, in our polling, in ohio, florida, and vir